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Extracts from “Friendship”
WHAT virtue, or what mental grace, | |
| But men unqualified and base | |
| Will boast it their possession? | |
| Profusion apes the noble part | |
| Of liberality of heart, | 5 |
| And dulness, of discretion. | |
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| If every polished gem we find | |
| Illuminating heart or mind, | |
| Provoke to imitation; | |
| No wonder friendship does the same, | 10 |
| That jewel of the purest flame, | |
| Or rather constellation. | |
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| No friendship will abide the test, | |
| That stands on sordid interest, | |
| Or mean self-love erected; | 15 |
| Nor such as may awhile subsist, | |
| Between the sot and sensualist, | |
| For vicious ends connected. | |
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| Who seek a friend should come disposed, | |
| T’ exhibit in full bloom disclosed | 20 |
| The graces and the beauties, | |
| That form the character he seeks, | |
| For ’t is a union that bespeaks | |
| Reciprocated duties. | |
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| But will sincerity suffice? | 25 |
| It is indeed above all price, | |
| And must be made the basis; | |
| But ev’ry virtue of the soul | |
| Must constitute the charming whole, | |
| All shining in their places. | 30 |
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| A fretful temper will divide | |
| The closest knot that may be tied, | |
| By ceaseless sharp corrosion; | |
| A temper passionate and fierce | |
| May suddenly your joys disperse | 35 |
| At one immense explosion. | |
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| In vain the talkative unite | |
| In hopes of permanent delight— | |
| The secret just committed, | |
| Forgetting its important weight, | 40 |
| They drop through mere desire to prate, | |
| And by themselves outwitted. | |
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| How bright soe’er the prospect seems, | |
| All thoughts of friendship are but dreams | |
| If envy chance to creep in; | 45 |
| An envious man, if you succeed, | |
| May prove a dang’rous foe indeed, | |
| But not a friend worth keeping. | |
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| The great and small but rarely meet | |
| On terms of amity complete; | 50 |
| Plebeians must surrender, | |
| And yield so much to noble folk, | |
| It is combining fire with smoke, | |
| Obscurity with splendor. | |
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| Courtier and patriot cannot mix | 55 |
| Their het’rogeneous politics | |
| Without an effervescence, | |
| Like that of salts with lemon-juice, | |
| Which does not yet like that produce | |
| A friendly coalescence. | 60 |
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| Religion should extinguish strife, | |
| And make a calm of human life; | |
| But friends that chance to differ | |
| On points which God has left at large, | |
| How freely will they meet and charge! | 65 |
| No combatants are stiffer. | |
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| To prove at last my main intent | |
| Needs no expense of argument, | |
| No cutting and contriving— | |
| Seeking a real friend, we seem | 70 |
| T’ adopt the chymists’ golden dream, | |
| With still less hope of thriving. | |
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| Sometimes the fault is all our own, | |
| Some blemish in due time made known, | |
| By trespass or omission; | 75 |
| Sometimes occasion brings to light | |
| Our friend’s defect long hid from sight, | |
| And even from suspicion. | |
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| Then judge yourself and prove your man | |
| As circumspectly as you can, | 80 |
| And, having made election, | |
| Beware no negligence of yours, | |
| Such as a friend but ill endures, | |
| Enfeeble his affection. | |
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| As similarity of mind, | 85 |
| Or something not to be defined | |
| First fixes our attention; | |
| So manners decent and polite, | |
| The same we practised at first sight, | |
| Must save it from declension. | 90 |
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| Pursue the search, and you will find | |
| Good sense and knowledge of mankind | |
| To be at least expedient, | |
| And, after summoning all the rest, | |
| Religion ruling in the breast | 95 |
| A principal ingredient. | |
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